"There is one thing occurs to me," said he at last. "As we sat
at the table my back was to the window, and my brother George, he
being my partner at cards, was facing it. I saw him once look
hard over my shoulder, so I turned round and looked also. The
blind was up and the window shut, but I could just make out the
bushes on the lawn, and it seemed to me for a moment that I saw
something moving among them. I couldn't even say if it was man
or animal, but I just thought there was something there. When I
asked him what he was looking at, he told me that he had the same
feeling. That is all that I can say."

"Did you not investigate?"

"No; the matter passed as unimportant."

"You left them, then, without any premonition of evil?"

"None at all."

"I am not clear how you came to hear the news so early this
morning."

"I am an early riser and generally take a walk before breakfast.
This morning I had hardly started when the doctor in his carriage
overtook me. He told me that old Mrs. Porter had sent a boy down
with an urgent message. I sprang in beside him and we drove on.
When we got there we looked into that dreadful room. The candles
and the fire must have burned out hours before, and they had been
sitting there in the dark until dawn had broken. The doctor said
Brenda must have been dead at least six hours. There were no
signs of violence. She just lay across the arm of the chair with
that look on her face. George and Owen were singing snatches of
songs and gibbering like two great apes. Oh, it was awful to
see! I couldn't stand it, and the doctor was as white as a
sheet. Indeed, he fell into a chair in a sort of faint, and we
nearly had him on our hands as well."

"Remarkable--most remarkable!" said Holmes, rising and taking his
hat. "I think, perhaps, we had better go down to Tredannick
Wartha without further delay. I confess that I have seldom known
a case which at first sight presented a more singular problem."

Our proceedings of that first morning did little to advance the
investigation. It was marked, however, at the outset by an
incident which left the most sinister impression upon my mind.
The approach to the spot at which the tragedy occurred is down a
narrow, winding, country lane. While we made our way along it we
heard the rattle of a carriage coming towards us and stood aside
to let it pass. As it drove by us I caught a glimpse through the
closed window of a horribly contorted, grinning face glaring out
at us. Those staring eyes and gnashing teeth flashed past us
like a dreadful vision.

"My brothers!" cried Mortimer Tregennis, white to his lips.
"They are taking them to Helston."

We looked with horror after the black carriage, lumbering upon
its way. Then we turned our steps towards this ill-omened house
in which they had met their strange fate.